🎭Caly🎭

IN GENERAL

𖤓 Tickle fights are very very very common in the Curtis household. The Greasers are already extremely affectionate with one another so roughhousing and tickling are just a part of their love language.

𖤓 They’re all touch-starved AS FUCK. If they aren’t pushing or shoving one another they’re leaning on one another or just poking and prodding or shoving or pushing. They cannot keep their hands to themselves 💔.

𖤓 The Greasers gang is literally just one big family and they’re all siblings who feed off of pissing each other off—tickling one another is just a way of doing that lol.

𖤓 Ponyboy and Johnny are usually the main victims when it comes to being tickled; being the youngest ones in the gang and all. Don’t be fooled though, they have their Ler moments sometimes.

𖤓 Darry and Two-Bit are the designated tickle monsters of the group; Darry being the oldest and being built like a freaking tank while Two-Bit is just…well…Two-Bit.

DARREL “DARRY” CURTIS (LER-LEANING SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 Has killer reflexes from playing football in high school so surprise tickles don’t really work on him; he always catches the gang in the act and he just effortlessly wrecks their shit a good 90% of the time.

𖤓 Speaking of, his go-to method to tickling people is lying their back on his shoulder and just tickling them up there ughhghf he’s such an older brother it disgusts me. 

𖤓 As an older sibling, he adores doing the whole Tickle Monster™ persona thing; it makes him so freakishly happy. 

𖤓 Tickles Sodapop and Ponyboy the most; Darry could honestly care less about how old his siblings get; he can and will tickle the snot out of them any chance he gets 😤‼️❗️‼️

𖤓 THE Tickle Monster of the gang—no one and nothing is taking that title away from him. 

𖤓 Loves pretending to ‘eat’ tickle spots with nibbles or raspberries; he thinks it’s so stupidly silly and fun. 

𖤓 Darry doesn’t really need to tease to get the person he’s tickling to lose their mind; he just has this look that just sends the gang into nervous hysterics. 

𖤓 Will use tickle threats like nobody else's business: “Do the dishes or imma tickle you.”, “If you don’t get offa me imma tickle you.” and his personal favorite: “I’m the oldest here, remember? Now if you don’t give me that dang remote I’m gonna tickle you.” The threats work eeeeverytime... 

𖤓 Can say ‘tickle’ like it’s just a normal word for sure. Darry most definitely finds tickling itself a tad bit embarrassing but to him, the word itself isn’t.  

𖤓 He uses being able to say ‘tickle’ like it’s an everyday word as an advantage ALL THE TIME when talking to or tickling the gang (Ponyboy gets it the worst 🐴🪦). 

𖤓 Says dumb shit like “Well, I’ll be tickled pink…” or “You good at ticklin’ the ivories?” that never fails to piss everyone off and it makes Darry so ecstatic even if he doesn’t show it. 

𖤓 He loves hearing the gang’s genuine laughter 🥹; those are his brothersssss!!!

𖤓 Is hella good at light tickles and it drives the gang MAD. Darry’s a big fella! Him being good at light tickles is not something that should exist!!! 

𖤓 His parents used to give him and his brothers tickle kisses but obviously after they passed, that specific kind of affection stopped. So Darry took it upon himself to not let it die (🌬️just🌬️like🌬️their 🌬️parents🌬️did🌬️) . 

𖤓 Very straightforward and honest when tickling someone. Half of the time he isn’t even trying to tease, he’s just stating the truth 🤧🤚🏾 …

𖤓 “…You asked for this…” “I see you smilin’…‘looks like someone’s havin’ fun.” “You love gettin’ tickled so I don’t get what all the fuss is about.” CLOCKED.

𖤓 Gets kind of emotional if someone in the gang specifically asks him for tickles. He gets over it quickly but he thinks about it for a good week or two at best because like??? Someone wants to get tickled by him??? What the heck???

𖤓 But don’t take Darry’s kindness for granted; he can be a mean when he wants to be. 

𖤓 If someone in the gang pissed him off or even remotely provoked him in any way he will not say a word and just wreck their shit until they apologize. 

𖤓 Does stupid ass one-liners when tickling the gang too, like, imagine a buffier and taller version of TMNT 2012 Leo and TTG Robin put into one person; that’s Darrel Curtis 

Ponyboy, backing away slowly: “D-Don’t yohou dahare!”

Darry, inching close: “I’m Darry…heh…of course I dare 😏.” <- 🍅🍅‼️🍅‼️‼️‼️🍅‼️🍅‼️🍅‼️🍅🍅‼️🍅‼️‼️‼️🍅

𖤓 Gets Ler moods pretty often and takes it out on the gang pretty frequently. 

𖤓 He has no problem pining the gang down but it honestly depends who it is. Soda, Pony and Two-Bit he’ll pin and wrestle without a doubt. With Steve it's kinda 50/50; it honestly depends on the type of day Steve’s having and what his demeanor is like. With Dally and Johnny Darry doesn’t pin them unless they specifically ask him to. 

𖤓 Darry and his football buddies would have tickle fights every now and again during the season. Him and Paul would be at each other’s THROATS trying to gain the upper hand during practice. 

𖤓 There is no escaping when Darry is tickling someone. He will haul their ass back so quickly!!! The only people that get a pass on this are Johnny, Dallas and Steve for pretty obvious reasons. 

𖤓 Aftercare is so incredibly important to Darry. He’ll give the gang a quick hug, a glass of whatever or genuinely anything they need. 

𖤓 Wins a good 8/10 of tickle fights if the gang doesn't CHEAT by dogpiling him. 

𖤓 Gives wake up tickles and good night tickles because he doesn’t know how to wake people up or put them to sleep highkey 💀. He was never a lullaby type of fellow (unless he was singing with his mama) and didn't have the patience or time to keep screaming to get someone up. So, when in doubt: tickle.

𖤓 If someone in the gang is in his way, Darry’ll just poke their sides to get them to move.

𖤓 He’s not that good at reading people (as the book CONSTANTLY lets us know) so he tries to be as mindful of people’s limits as possible. 

𖤓 If someone in the gang is acting a fool in public (more than usual) he will not hesitate to jab them in the ribs or taze their sides because Darry is NOT the one and he needs to let them know‼️❗️‼️❗️‼️❗️‼️

LEE:

𖤓 Ticklish in very surprising places so for a good chunk of his childhood, he and his family thought that he just wasn’t ticklish. Lil Dare was pretty sad about it (he’ll never admit it but trust assured he was) until his dad playfully squeezed his shoulders to get his attention and Darry literally CACKLED and was pushing with all of his might to try and make his dad to let go. It’s one of his favorite memories to this day ☹️💞. 

𖤓 His neck (ESPECIALLY the back of it), shoulders, back, palms and feet are his worst spots.

𖤓 He has a low, kind of airy laugh that’s pretty charismatic yet genuine. He also looks and sounds way way younger when laughing too. 

𖤓 Darry’s genuinely so scared of accidentally injuring someone when he’s squirming but if someone's getting a bad spot he can’t help it if he accidentally socks them in the gut…better dodge next time, ig 💀…

𖤓 “IHIHI’M GONNA KIHIHICK YA IHINTO TOMORROW!” “LEMME GOHOHOOOOH!” “SHUHUHUT IHIHIT!!!”

𖤓 Gets tickled by his coworkers sometimes—to them, Darry’s just an angry and stressed baby man; he’s literally the youngest roofer there and doesn’t crack a smile once…it breaks his coworkers hearts a little. SO! Darry’s coworker’s sometimes squeeze his sides or drag their fingers down his spine to get his attention; Darry squeaks out in surprise every single time and yells at them for ‘catching him off-guard.’

𖤓 Falls for Soda’s tickle hugs and tickle massages religiously; God forbid a guy wholeheartedly trusts his brother 💔💔💔 …

𖤓 Due to Soda’s notorious tickle hugs, though, Darry tenses, squirms or snickers a bit when people run in to give him hugs. 

𖤓 HATES anticipation; he genuinely gets so ticked off by it 😭. He’ll just glare, grumble with a faint blush on his cheeks and occasionally drag a hand over his face. 

𖤓 Receives cheer-up tickles more than one would think…he’s a very stressed guy y’know?? It’s so hard being a single mom when you have six brothers and are a young adult male 😔🥀 …

𖤓 Is also tickled cause he highkey just needs to loosen up sometimes!!! 

𖤓 Darry would rather die than verbally ask for tickles; he’s really ashamed and bashful about it no matter how many times the gang reassure him. 

𖤓 He’s literally such a hypocrite when it comes to tickling, though because the gang asking for tickles is fine but if it’s HIMSELF??? Oh hell no. He’s a weird freakass and he should just kill himself where he stands. 

𖤓 Absolutely LOATHES how well raspberries work on the back of his ribs. Ponyboy got him to tap out once by simply doing that and Darry’s never lived it down since. 

𖤓 Very very VERY stubborn when getting tickled; he’ll bite his cheek and do absolutely everything in his power to not laugh. 

𖤓 Even if he does want to get wrecked he’ll block off any of the spots someone is trying to tickle. 

𖤓 Cannot handle back or shoulder massages at all ☝🏾🙂‍↔️‼️‼️‼️

𖤓 Due to his roofing job, Darry’s hands shed a lot and so his palms are very soft which also causes his palms to be stupidly sensitive…y’all know where I’m going with this…

𖤓 🎉SUPERMAN🎉HAS🎉TICKLISH🎉PALMS🎉YAAAAY🎉!!! He would rather die than admit it out loud, though. It’s one of his melt spots but it’s so unbearingly ticklish for him. 

𖤓 Genuinely giggles like a five year old if anyone tickles his palms and is so embarrassed by it; grown ass man tee-heeing from getting tickled on his hands everybody point and laugh 🫵🏾😂‼️‼️‼️

𖤓 Darry is immune to baby talk UNLESS he’s getting tickled on his palms, back or feet. Genuinely will just keep screaming “SHUHUHUT THE FUHUCK UHUP!!!” until the person tickling him decides to have mercy on him. 

𖤓 He’s very hard to pin down though because he’s not only the tallest in the gang but also the most built due to football which is why the gang either tickle him in groups or trick him into getting tickled.

𖤓 No one has successfully finished the ‘This Little Piggy’ game with Darry yet. Soda got close (up to Darry’s middle toe) before getting kicked straight in the jaw; Darry felt so so so so so bad afterwards…

𖤓 Those killer tickle kisses that he gives his siblings? Oh yeah if he were to receive those he’d actually tap out so quickly. Big bro CANNOT handle tickle kisses and gets kind of emotional when getting them because they just remind him too much of their parents. 

𖤓 When he really, and I mean really misses his parents, he lightly traces his forearms and palms because his parents used to do that to him all the time to get him to fall sleep. 

𖤓 Meeeelts at petnames and nicknames. Throw in a childhood nickname like “Dare Bear” and a couple of “honey”’s here and there??? The guy’s laughter will become more high-pitched and frantic and he’ll definitely squirm more. 

𖤓 Is so weird when in a Lee mood. He just…gets as stiff as a rock??? Like, he walks around like there’s a whole pole up his anus. For example, one morning, Ponyboy was going to get juice from the fridge but the fridge was blocked by his eldest brother who was reading the newspaper. So naturally, Pony planned to just scoot his brother over a bit so he could get by. So the pubescent horse was all like “S’cuze me, Dare...” and rested his hands on his brother’s sides and Darry just stood there as still as the toys from Toy Story get when Andy’s coming. 

𖤓 He’ll go to Soda if he’s in a bad Lee mood but usually he just suffers in silence 😞☹️ …

𖤓 DIES when people underestimate how ticklish he is or use his titles as a way to tease him, like: “Don’t tell me the big bad Darrel Curtis is ticklish now…” or “You’re waaay more ticklish than I thought you were…!” Like leave him ALONE oml 😭??? Brother has bills to pay in the morning!!!

𖤓 Gets stuck in shirts a ton because he doesn’t think he needs to buy new ones for himself so he wears shirts from, like, two to three years ago. A random person can’t really tell that some shirts are too small on him but THE GANG can tell and that’s more important. So one day Johnny had enough of the bs and just wrecked Darry’s shit as he was trying to put on his shirt for work. Johnny made him promise to never wear shirts that genuinely don’t fit him ever again and Darry has kept that promise till this day. 

KEITH “TWO-BIT” MATTHEWS (LER-LEANING SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 Has a younger sister so I’d say he’s PRETTYYYYY experienced when it comes to the whole tickling ordeal 😋‼️

𖤓 Is the main attacker that tazes the other gang members’ sides. No matter how many times he does it it will remain the funniest thing to him to just watch his friends yelp and giggle silly. 

𖤓 Does a bajillion million annoying tickle games because he’s so stupid and lame and DUMB‼️❗️‼️❗️‼️

𖤓 I have two words for you: playful. growls. It’s his favorite thing to do when giving someone a raspberry. 

𖤓 Loves doing anticipatory teases like: “IIIIII’m gonna getcha~!”

𖤓 Before The Accident, Mr. Curtis, Mrs. Curtis and Ms. Matthews would pull together all their spare money and take the boys to the carnival. Two-Bit would always have to poke Darry, Dally and Johnny when the gang would go to the photo booths, though. Darry because he has a resting bitch face, Dally because he was trying to look tough and Johnny because he has a resting sad face. The photos have a nice home on his dresser 💞!!! 

𖤓 Would honestly marry tickle chases if he could. He’s chased the gang throughout basically almost all of Tulsa; bro does not care. Once he’s decided he’s tickling someone he will; if they’re running away then they’re just prolonging the inevitable. 

𖤓 Teeny weeny gripe I have but I really hate how the fandom reduces Two-Bit’s character to just a ‘goofball’ and nothing else. Like yeah bro’s funny but he’s still a Greaser. Like when Ponyboy told Johnny he wasn’t wanted at home Two-Bit was QUICK to put that lil horse boy in his place. Two is the most emotionally aware in the group and I feel like that mainly shows in how he tickles his friends. 

𖤓 “Lets hope ‘n pray no Soc finds out your ticklish; you’d cave in in less than a minute if they were ticklin’ ya.” “It’s ‘fuck you.’ Not ‘FUHUHUCK YOHOU!!!’ I would know, my pops screamed that at me constantly growing up.” “I mean…I couuuuld stop but where’s the fun in that?” 

𖤓 Surprisingly gives great cheer-up tickles. 

𖤓 Mainly tickles Darry and Dally; they frown too much for his liking. 

𖤓 Watches football (like the 🇺🇸A🏈M🍺E🧨R🦅I💸C🍻A🫯N🗣️ he is) and narrates a convo like a play-by-play announcer and commentator. He refers to his announcer self as ‘Two’ and his commentator self as ‘Bit’. Yeah, he isn’t very creative…

Two-Bit, squezing Steve’s hips: “Wow! What wonderful weather we’re havin’, huh, Bit?”

Two-Bit: “Ain’t that true, Two. See, I oughta get out more to see the clouds more often. I might get the chance to, though, ‘cuz Stevie over here is squirmin’ so bad I might launch into the sky! Ain’t that right, Steve-O?”

Steve: “CAHAN YOU SHUT UP?!” 

𖤓 Checks for Tickle-Itis (because that’s totally a real thing) on the gang constantly. He pretends to perform a posture check and then just ends up wrecking their shit. 

𖤓 Uses wrestling as his go-to tickling tactic. He usually just wraps someone in a light headlock and just tickles them. 

𖤓 Yaps about everybody’s weaknesses like nobody’s business and will just bring them up in casual conversation. 

𖤓 He also does the same thing when he sees other people in the gang getting wrecked too. He just throws in his two cents (😛) in there and goes on his merry way.

𖤓 Has no problem saying ‘tickle’ and just thinks it’s an overall funny word. 

𖤓 Most definitely says random crappy sayings that involve the word ‘tickle’ like Darry does. 

𖤓 Speaking of their dynamic, actually! The two of them were real big trouble makers when they were little. The two of them were MENACES when it came to tickling their younger siblings and friends. But you know how it goes, Two-Bit got held back, the Curtis parents died and Darry had little time to be a kid. The two miss the strong bond they had before The Accident but feel like the other grew out of their friendship.

𖤓 A retired Tickle Monster as of right now because his little sister is in the phase where she’s claiming she’s ‼️TOO😤OLD‼️to be tickled by him. He respects her wishes but he always snickers to himself when he’s tickling someone from his gang and can quite literally see the jealous glint in her eyes. 

𖤓 He’s more addicted to tickling Marcia than he is to drinking and that says a LOT. 

𖤓 He already had a crush on Marcia prior to The Rumble but after the events of the book (everyone lives happily ever after btw no one is told to stay shiny or whatever), the two are hanging out and Two-Bit is telling one of his bizarre stories as per use, yfm? And because Two-Bit is being Two-Bit, it’s loud and dramatic and the story-telling makes Marcia snort undignifiedly. Two-Bit didn’t say anything because he didn’t want her to feel more embarrassed then she 100% already did BUT trust assured it solidified him wanting to marry her. 

𖤓 Usually tickles Marcia to get her to loosen up or to stop her from being too hard on herself. That, or he just wants to hear her laugh. 

𖤓 I headcanon Two and Kathy (the girl mentioned to be driving with him on page 36) to be childhood friends and they would have tickle fights often; Two-Bit usually winning. 

𖤓 Has deadass done tutorials on how to tickle a specific person in the gang (specific person meaning Dallas Gangbanger Winston); Johnny always helps or spectates 😙. 

𖤓 Always laughs with and at his the person he’s tickling because they’re laughing and letting loose and their reactions are funny and wholesome but at the same time they’re cussing him out because he’s ‘good at teasing.’ AAAAA you mad. 

𖤓 Since he’s one of the oldest in the Greasers gang, he teaches the younger ones basic self defense and some fighting techniques. Keep in mind, though, it’s Two-Bit Matthews. If the person he’s teaching gets the formation wrong or is sloppy, Two won’t hesitate to poke their sides.

𖤓 Wrecks Steve, Johnny and Ponyboy anytime they get lazy with their schoolwork. While Two-Bit never cared for school, he would be damned if he let the younger Greasers end up like him.

𖤓 Very good at realizing when someone’s had enough even when they don’t verbally or wordlessly say so. He just kinda gets this sorta vibe and he slowly backs off and is all like: “I got you good, huh 🤪?” 

𖤓 Speaking of, his aftercare is just the occasional noogie, pat on the shoulder and a light quip; nothing extraordinary. 

LEE:

𖤓 Jesus Christ this man has the loudest laugh in the gang and probably in all of Tulsa; if he’s getting his shit wrecked, the whole town will know because they’ll see their windows breaking all around them.  

𖤓 I’m just joshing…I’m just joshing (partially). But seriously, I mean it when I say Two-Bit is a pretty loud fella. His laugh is all wheezes and snickers—pretty much what one would expect. 

𖤓 When he’s drunk he gets super giggly and extra sensitive. When he’s around the gang he doesn’t drink to the extent that he doesn’t know where he is but drinks just enough to find everything and everyone funny. 

𖤓 When he brings his sister over to the Curtis house and he’s being annoying as hell (which is a good 99.9% of the time), she’ll just blurt out his weaknesses and Two-Bit just scrambles to shut her up while trying to hastily deny it before the gang tries anything. 

𖤓 Doesn’t really get embarrassed or flustered. He loves getting tickled and feels no shame about it whatsoever. 

𖤓 Is ticklish everywhere but mainly on his feet, underarms, ribs and chin. 

𖤓 Is always trying to one up his Ler; like he taunts, banters and teases back like there’s no tomorrow. 

𖤓 Johnny, genuinely: “You’re real ticklish, Two…”

Two-Bit, also genuinely: “Pff…sahahays yohou.” 

𖤓 SO MOUTHY AND CHATTY, GOOD LORD 😭🤚🏾!!! One would think that tickling the daylights out of the man would shut him up but NOPE; if anything, it just makes him even louder. 

𖤓 He’s a kicker; especially if someone is trying to get his feet or ribs. 

𖤓 Mainly tickled by Darry and Marcia because he provokes them (on purpose and just because he feels like it).

𖤓 “H-Hehey! At leheast tahake me out to dihihinner, fihirst!” “WOHOHOAH thehehere, pahal! There’s enough me for everybody!” “Dohon’t tahahalk to me like that, yohou're gehehettin’ meheh ahall excited…” Actually BURN him at the stake. 

𖤓 LIVES off of flustering and teasing his Ler; it’s his one and only job. 

𖤓 Steve, genuinely snarling: “I’m goin’ to tickle the shit outta you if you don’t move.”

Two-Bit, completely unfazed: “Aweee…yohohou prohohomise~?” 

𖤓 Didn’t really lean into his Lee side and didn’t have Lee moods until dating Marcia. 

𖤓 One night Two and Marcia were on a date at the Drive-In like they always do and Two-Bit was yapping about straight and utter nonsense like he always does. Marcia then playfully squeezed his ribs to get him to slow the hell down but just found herself beaming as Two-Bit started wheezing and cackling. 

𖤓 Is very competitive and will NOT be pinned down without a fight. 

𖤓 Ticklish under the chin and anytime someone mentions it he has to restrain himself from giving them a good ol’ boot to the fruit (not Marcia, though of course 🙂‍↕️). 

𖤓 Marcia was the one to discover his ticklish chin and she just felt like it was right to tell the gang since Two-Bit would always yap about their weaknesses. 

𖤓 Stretches and flexes dramatically when he’s in a Lee mood. OFF WITH HIS HEAD‼️🔥‼️🔥‼️🔥‼️

𖤓 Has a notebook of Mickey Mouse & Friends tickle headcanons that no one knows about and Two-bit hopes to keep it that way. Before he dies, though, he plans on burying it in Disneyland. How is he gonna get there you ask? A dream is a wish your heart makes, remember?

𖤓 Also tickles his Mickey Mouse plushies when in a Lee mood. It’s cringe as hell but he’s free as hell.  

𖤓 Gets red in the face from laughing and tears up easily when he gets tickled. It freaked the gang out for a second when they were all younger but lil Two-Bit was quick to reassure them that that’s just how he reacts.

𖤓 As I’ve said before, Two-Bit has no shame when it comes to tickling or getting tickled so he deadass will just ask someone to tickle him if his iconic stretches aren’t hints enough. 

𖤓 Has been known to squawk like a literal bird if his first couple of ribs are lightly kneaded. 

𖤓 Never asked his parents for tickles growing up and is kind of jealous that the Curtis kids had the luxury to. Two’s parents would fight constantly and so when his dad eventually left his mom obviously became busier with work, Two then had to take care of his baby sister and yeah…

𖤓 He recovers after getting tickled pretty quickly. Bro just collects himself and goes about his day like barely anything happened. 

𖤓 Only swears like a sailor when someone tickles one of his death spots. 

𖤓 His rust-colored hair goes down to about his shoulders and it tickles the back of his neck like CRAZY. He refuses to cut it cuz he’s lazy like that but every now and again he’ll scrunch up his shoulders and snicker. Steve side-eyes the hell out of him anytime he does, though because he looks WACK when he does it 🥀 …

𖤓 Doesn’t do cheer-up tickles—he thinks they’re weird as fuck. He understands that it works for his friends sometimes and that’s fine for them but when it comes to Two he just isn’t comfortable with it. Plus, he doesn’t want to burden his friends with his sad ass; he saves that part of him for the alcohol. 

DALLAS “DALLY” WINSTON (???)

LER:

𖤓 Isn’t really that big on tickling people, honestly. He’ll do jabs to the sides if someone in the gang is annoying him and use it as an advantage to win if he’s wrestling one of them but other than that? I really can’t see Dally being that big of a tickler. 

𖤓 Which isn’t to say he didn’t want to be—he honestly just didn’t know how to. Dally’s been on his own for a majority of his childhood so it’s not out of this world to assume that he missed out on tickling growing up. That, or it was looked down upon by the adults around him 💔.

𖤓 And not only that but he’s also known to be the toughest hood in all of Tulsa to not only his gang but to outsiders (pun very much intended) as well. The guy has a reputation to uphold that he can’t allow to be tainted by any means.  

𖤓 But at the end of the day, I feel like Dally just has mixed feelings about tickling overall; on one hand, it feels nice to let loose and not be so tuff all the time but on the other hand, tickling requires him to be vulnerable (whether on the giving or receiving side) and if there’s one thing Dallas Winston hates? It’s being vulnerable. 

𖤓 He mainly tickles Johnny and sometimes Ponyboy and Two-Bit. 

𖤓 Johnny has stupidly ticklish ears and Dally has always had a field day with that information ever since they became friends. 

𖤓 Dally’ll always whisper something in Johnny’s ear like: “Hey, Johnnycakes. I gotta tell you somethin’...” and insist it’s important but the kid is giggling, squealing and squirming too much to say anything coherent.

𖤓 Not really a big teaser but will point out the obvious or just make obvious statements like: “You’re laughin’ quite a lot for someone who says they ain’t ticklish.” or “Your sides are worse than I remember...” and “I didn’t recruit a bird to my gang so why’re you squawkin’ so much like one? You gonna start flyin’ to?” 

𖤓 Gets into tickle fights with Johnny a lot and wins them a good 90% of the time. 

𖤓 Finds group tickle fights freaking hilarious even if he says they’re completely stupid; he watches them from afar and makes snide comments here and there. 

𖤓 He’ll jump in tickle fights/wrestles if prompted to (while grumbling of course because he’s just nonchalant like that 🗿) but most of the time he’s usually physically dragged into them. 

𖤓 He finds an admitedly strange comfort in the tickle fights the gang has. The normalcy of the affection reminds him that he’s not in his New York gang anymore and he’s with people who genuinely care about him.

𖤓 Doesn’t really do aftercare all that much? He’ll just ruffle the gang’s hair or pat their back. Unless you’re Johnny—Johnny gets a 0.2 second side hug ☺️💕.

𖤓 Tickles the absolute snot out of Johnny and Pony at the Drive-Ins they go to. Says dumb shit like: “Quit laughin’, you two! Folks are tryin’ to watch the movie.” While the two are full on squealing and trying to bat him away. Once he’s done though, he’ll apologize to other people on their behalf, like: “Sorry ‘bout them, ladies…they just love [insert movie character here]…! ‘Makes ‘em forget how’ta act sometimes.”

𖤓 When he was younger, like twelve or so, he was introduced to tickling by the Curtis’ when Soda and Darry were having a tickle fight (Soda was terribly losing and screaming his head off 😭🙏🏾). Dally was creeped the fuck OUT and was mentally debating whether or not to go help Sodapop; Dally was having a lot of mixed emotions. Mrs. Curtis saw the boy’s conflict and then gently explained to him that Soda was fine and that he was just being tickled; Darry wasn’t hurting him. 

𖤓 Dally was genuinely more confused when Mrs. Curtis explained that tickling can be used for genuine play, bonding or comfort instead of a way to humiliate someone like Dally had seen in other gangs. So, Dally took it upon himself to understand it better. A couple days later, Dally tried tickling Johnny with the same demeanor as Darry did with Soda (the Tickle Monster persona) but Dally’s delivery was just awkward and he actually ended up scaring Johnny a little bit because he was VEEERRRY aggressive about it…

𖤓 After a couple minutes Johnny snapped out of his shocked state and reassured Dally he was okay and he was honestly just a tad bit surprised by the entire thing but for awhile, Dally only tickled people if they initiated it first to save himself the embarrassment. 

𖤓 But ever since that day, Dally has always communicated with Johnny when he’s going to tickle him because he doesn’t want to accidentally scare him again. 

𖤓 Literally had to get mentored by Mr. Curtis on how to tickle people. 

𖤓 That being said, escaping from Dallas Winston’s wrath isn’t a concept that can be attainable if he’s tickling someone. He knows a bunch of different holds from the experience of mugging people so if someone ‘escapes’ it’s because he let them.  

𖤓 Dally has natural fangs so his nibbles are LETHAL; worse than Darry’s a good percent of the time. 

𖤓 Is an arrogant asshole so when he’s tickling someone he’s going to do one of two things (or if they’ve really pissed him off, both): force them to say something borderline embarrassing or say something to raise his ego. Dally has made Steve say everything and anything under the sun and Steve hates him for it. 

𖤓 The only person he gets Ler moods towards is—you guessed it—Johnny Cade 💓😭💓. When it comes to Johnny, Dally always gets a Ler mood mixed with cuteness aggression. 

𖤓 Gets kind of jealous that everyone can be so playful when tickling. Dally finds it kind of frustrating that he’s still adjusting to something so childlike and innocent that mostly the whole gang has experienced their whole lives. And on top of that, the people who didn’t grow up with it like him (Steve and Johnny) adjusted just fine so why does he feel so weird about it sometimes? 

𖤓 Wears a smirk the whole time when he’s tickling someone; he just finds the reactions really funny. 

𖤓 Dally grew up on the rough streets of NYC so he is anything but stupid; he’s got street smarts. That being said, Dally sticks to sarcastic/teasy comments instead of fully tickling Darry because even if he manages to tickle him, Darry’s revenge will always be ten times worse. Although, if he ever lands a successful poke he immediately finds a way to get out of reach or pin the blame on someone else. 

𖤓 Tickles Ponyboy sometimes to ‘convince him’ to hang out. 

𖤓 Flexes/wiggles his fingers as a way to crack his joints and finds it hilarious some of the Greasers see it as a threat to him potentially tickling them. 

𖤓 Can say ‘tickle’ just fine and constantly uses it as a flex 💯❗️❗️❗️

𖤓 Dally likes to casually drape an arm over his friend’s shoulders and act completely oblivious as the person is bracing themselves for a tickle attack. A good chunk of the time Dally just walks away and acts like he wasn’t doing anything.

LEE:

𖤓 Has a snort laugh and I will not be hearing any criticism about it respectfully. 

𖤓 The only people that really tickle him to the extent that he snorts (which he despises greatly) is Johnny (HEAVY on Johnny) and Darry. Everyone else is too worried that if they try to tickle him so that he snorts, they won’t live to tell the tale 🥀 …

𖤓 Has a really dorky laugh that literally no one, not even himself could predict. It’s momentarily loud but can be very wheezy (like a hyena) with, of course, the occasional quiet snorts in between—it’s very childlike and bright which is hilariously ironic.

𖤓 (Skip to 0:20) But THIS is what I mean. He’s such a stinky weirdo I can smell the stank through the screen. 

𖤓 Can shut off his ticklishness if he isn’t in the mood for it or isn’t comfortable with the person tickling him; honestly, he’ll just stare like “ 🧿__🧿” until the person gets the hint.

𖤓 Not really ticklish ‘everywhere’ I’d say, but his worst spots are his ribs, hips, calves. 

𖤓 Mrs. Curtis was the first person to tickle Dallas. God, Dally and Mrs. Curtis’ relationship actually means so much to me because what do you mean she was the only person capable of keeping Dally away from trouble and getting himself hurt? What do you mean her maternal warmth gave him a reason to be a good kid? Oh, get out of here. 

𖤓 Mrs. Curtis discovered that Dally was ticklish when he was being really stubborn and refusing to have dinner with everyone else because he ‘didn’t need it’ and ‘wasn’t hungry.’ So! Mrs. Curtis compromised that if Dally was able to play a game and not laugh, he wouldn’t have to eat with them. She did the X Marks the Spot game and rest assured Dally lost very badly. 

𖤓 But because Dally still wanted to seem tough, he made her promise not to tell anyone and so she didn’t. 

𖤓 A couple years later, Johnny was the first in the gang to discover that Dally was ticklish and still holds it over Dally’s head like the little shit that he is. According to Johnny, he and Dally were at the Drive-In and Dally was…being Dally; trying to hit on girls and stuff. Johnny kept trying to tell him to knock it off but Dally refused to listen. And naturally, Johnny got fed up and tried to move Dally away by holding Dally’s sides and slightly pulling but instead of being met with a triumphant “I’ll leave them alone…” he was instead greeted with a loud shrill. 

𖤓 Johnny vaguely remembers Dally whipping around so fast and hugging his middles all like: “What the literal hell is your damage?!” And Johnny was like: “I didn’t know you were ticklish, Dal…” Dally then excused himself from the ‘conversation’ he was having with the girls and absolutely wrecked the SHIT out of Johnny afterwards.  

𖤓 Is a very big hitter and puncher; only results to light pushes and shoves when it’s Johnny tickling him (for obvious reasons).

𖤓 He swears like a SALIOR. He cannot keep his mouth PG to save his life but it becomes apparent especially when he’s getting tickled. 

𖤓 Is not comfortable whatsoever with receiving gentle/light tickles; they remind him too much of Sylvia but at the same time remind him too much of Mrs. Curtis and there’s too many mixed emotions happening and it completely ruins his entire mood for the rest of the week. 

𖤓 Sylvia would make fun of Dally’s laugh absentmindedly; not in a completely malicious way but it still got to Dally more than he’d personally like to admit; which is why he’s kind of apprehensive about laughing and showing that vulnerable side of himself.   

𖤓 In the book, he’s described as being really really really pale so unfortunately for him, when he blushes it’s very noticeable; his ears turn a very bright pink as well. 

𖤓 Would rather DIE than have his ribs counted. Two-Bit tried and successfully succeeded with counting Dally’s ribs and it was the first and last time Dally would tap out during a wrestling match. He still refuses to wrestle Two again to this day (not because Dally’s dead, okay??? I see y’all don’t start with me 👿🧨🔪‼️). 

𖤓 Will say he isn’t ticklish even when he’s actively getting tickled. Someone PLEASEEE come get this cornball, bro 🥱 …

𖤓 Really really tries to hold in his laugh. He really really does and he holds it relatively well but once someone hits a bad spot (aka his ribs) or mentions he’s blushing in any way it’s over for him. 

𖤓 Has better things to do than beg. My guy will just laugh his head off and cuss until he can’t think straight. The only people who’ve got him to say ‘please’ while getting wrecked are Johnny and Darry.

𖤓 “SHIT! NOHOH—SNRT! SHIHIHIT!!!” “DONT YOU—! GAHAH SNRT! OHO FUCK OHOHOFF!” “PFFT—SNRT! FUHUCKIN’ SHUT UP!!!” 

𖤓 Does nooooooot like getting tickled in public. He genuinely gets so pissed off by it and will just slug the absolute shit out of the person trying to tickle him (Johnny gets a pass, though). 

𖤓 Isn’t really known to get that flustered BUT will get kinda shy if someone mentions and compliments his dimples when he’s smiling or laughing (headcanon inspired by the fact that Joshua Boone, Dally’s OG actor in The Outsiders Musical has dimples 🫶🏾!!! So I just headcanon every Dally iteration with dimples heheh). 

𖤓 He gets so unbelievably grumpy and sassy when in a Lee mood and his overall demeanor is just more mellow than it usually is. His hands are in his leather jacket pockets and he’s scuffing dirt and chewing the inside of his cheek and his eyebrows are furrowed and ugh what a loser. 

𖤓 When in a Lee mood, Dally’ll just pick fights with the gang that somehow transcend into a tickle fight and he’d try and get out of them but oh nooooo Soda’s squeezing his hips and it’s such a bad spot that he can’t defend himself and he’s just sooo tired from laughing he just has to punch the air instead my GOD he absoluely hates everything about getting tickled. 

𖤓 Usually tickled silly by Darry and Johnny who pick up on Dally’s Lee mood like clockwork. 

𖤓 Naturally slips into his Bronx accent if someone is relentlessly tickling a bad spot. 

𖤓 Does not do cheer-up tickles. If he’s pissed off or upset he just wants to be left alone. 

𖤓 He gets tickled a good chunk of the time because he’s being a smart mouth but the other chunk is because he’s annoyingly stubborn; more than Darry sometimes. Dally hides injuries, fights other gangs by himself and just refuses to accept help. So the gang’s logic is if Dally doesn’t get the memo that he isn’t alone through words, they gotta make him see it through lovable actions 😚. 

𖤓 Dally 101% has a hard time accepting that kind of help due to his upbringing so he gets really surprised whenever his gang results to tickling as a ‘punishment’ instead of a physical altercation. 

STEVEN “STEVE” RANDLE (50/50 SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 He’s such an awkward bum as a Ler 💔 …

𖤓 Like…he can be one for sure but he just finds tickling people kinda weird and strange sometimes. Like Dally and Johnny, affection from his parents happened scarcely or not at all; tickling was just one of those things Steve’d watch and quietly question from afar when it happened to the people around him. 

𖤓 Actually, before meeting the Curtis’, Steve initially thought that tickling was a privilege; the same way Soc’s get mustangs and expensive clothes for their birthday’s. 

𖤓 He only really tickles people who are pissing him off which is mainly Soda, Two-Bit and Ponyboy. 

𖤓 He tried tickling Darry a couple years before canon but Darry wrecked Steve so bad afterwards that Steve never attempted to try doing it again alone or even purely THINK about doing it again alone 🥀 …

𖤓 Is more comfortable tickling during wrestling matches or in groups. If it’s 1v1 he just gets kind of hesitant because it’s just so stupidly personal. But he’ll still do it, of course; his normal smugness and cockiness just might lack a bit when he does, though. 

𖤓 Steve has his awkward moments here and there but he can still be a smartass when it comes to tickling someone. 

𖤓“Oh~? You laughin’, huh? Can’t be ‘cuz of me ‘cuz last I checked I was a Greaser; not a comedian.” “You better not be laughin’ at me or you got a whole ‘nother thing comin.’” “Fine then. Guess imma hafta give you somethin’ to laugh at.” 

𖤓 Steve is a very straightforward guy and has a hard time reading the room so I can imagine him kind of worrying if he accidentally insults someone (like the All Brawn No Brains situation with Darry in the book). So unless he’s 100% certain that his teases won’t fly over the person he’s tickling’s head…he stays relatively quiet.   

𖤓 When the two were younger, Steve did accidentally make Soda cry when he was teasing him. Now, neither specifically remembers what Steve said and even though Soda forgives him, Steve just sees it as proof he just needs to keep his mouth shut and think before he speaks. 

𖤓 Sometimes is genuinely appalled by how ticklish his friends are and makes small comments like: “It can’t be that bad…there’s no way you’re THIS ticklish.” or “I’m literally just using one finger” and “Holy shit, you’re dramatic.” The gang has come to learn that that’s just how Steve is sometimes and don’t look too much into it, but Ponyboy always takes those comments to heart which is why Steve and him get into it sometimes ☹️…

𖤓 Is described as pretty tall in the book; I’d say around the same height as Two-Bit (who I headcanon to be the third tallest behind Dally and Darry). That being said, he uses his tallness to good use so that a good majority of the time he’s holding somebody’s wrists or pinning them down.

𖤓 Likes making snide comments/teases from afar if someone is getting wrecked. 

𖤓 Dally, getting tickled by Darry: “STEHEVE! GET OHOHOFF YOHOUR LAZY AHAHASS AHAND GEHEHET OVER HERE!!!” 

Steve, casually doing his homework on the couch: “Nah, I think you got it, man.” 

Dally: “NOHOH THE FUHUHUCK I DON’T!!” 

Steve: “Superman, don’t forget to get his calves, yeah?” 

Dally, falling into hysterics as Darry gets his calves: “STEHEHEVE!!! YOHOU F-FUCKIN’ SNRT SNRT ASSHOLE!!!” 

Steve, chuckling: “Whahat are ya cussin’ at me for? Ain’t my fault your legs are a walkin’ tickle spot.” 

𖤓 Prefers to do quick pokes and unexpected squeezes rather than prolonged tickling.

𖤓 Uses tickling as a way to help his friends study. He did it with Soda as a joke when Soda asked him to tutor him and when Steve realized how effective it was, he continued to use it on any of his other friends who asked for help with exams, homework, tests or quizzes. 

𖤓 Steve, wiggling his fingers near Johnny’s sides: “What’s the answer, hm?” 

Johnny, curling in on himself and hiding in his jeans jacket: “I-I DON’T KNOW!!!” 

Steve: “Fuhuck you mean ‘you don’t know?!’ I just told you a couple minutes ago.” 

Johnny: “I FOHORGOT!”

Steve, lightly squeezing Johnny’s sides: “Well, remember then.” 

Johnny, pushing on Steve’s wrists: “SteheHEHEve!!!” 

Steve, smirking: “I don’t think I’m the president who got assassinated in ‘63…but good guess. Try again.” 

𖤓 Gets a kick out of quickly swiping a finger down his friend’s spines. 

𖤓 Likes tag-teaming so the attention isn’t all on him and he can also make comments here and there. 

𖤓 Speaking of which, he and Soda are a feared duo when it comes to tickling; not as much as Darry and Two-Bit but close. They bestied so hard that when teasing someone they finish each other’s sentences or say a tease at the exact same time 🥹💕!!! 

𖤓 He immediately goes for people’s death spots rather than going from least ticklish spots to most ticklish spots. He finds the tactic easier and it makes more sense to him. 

𖤓 Genuinely hates seeing his friends upset. If he sees one of his gang members kind of mellow, he squeezes their side all like: “Quit mopin’, man. You’re gonna get those, uh, face lines if you keep furrowin’ your eyebrows like that 😑.” 

𖤓 He actually tries to be very affectionate when it comes to tickling; his tone and face just make it seem like he’s mean-spirited 💔💔💔. 

𖤓 Likes to wiggle his fingers near his friend’s way because he loves the reaction. 

𖤓 Gets into serious tickle fights with Two-Bit over which one of them can have the last slice of chocolate cake, even though Darry always insists he can just make more and they’re being dramatic as hell. 

𖤓 💞ADORES💞 tickling Evie; this guy falls in love all over again anytime he hears her laugh. He genuinely gets those cartoon lovestruck heart eyes anytime she giggles. 

𖤓 Evie has a ticklish face and Steve thinks it’s so freaking adorable. He constantly wraps his arms around her waist and bombards her face with kisses. Public or private, the dude doesn’t care. If he’s hearing his girlfriend’s genuine laugh??? That’s all he cares about. 

𖤓 Speaking of, when they’re on dates he likes poking her side when she’s trying to order; he finds her surprised squeaks the funniest thing ever. 

𖤓 Doesn’t really get Ler moods all that often. They happen once in a while but it isn’t a reoccuring thing.  

𖤓 When Steve gets kicked out of the house by his father, instead of going to the Curtis’ house (because he doesn’t want to bother them), he sometimes goes to The Lot where Johnny sometimes is. If the two aren’t that badly bruised from their parents, they sometimes get into a tickle fight to get their minds off of things before falling asleep there. 

LEE:

𖤓 In the novel, it’s stated that Steve breaks three of his ribs during The Rumble but after he hears that Dally’s in trouble, the dude just runs to him like it’s just his average Tuesday. Now, I think this action of his was most definitely due to adrenaline or numbness but I also like to think that Steve’s gotten used to getting bodied there so, again: just his average Tuesday. That being said, Steve isn’t comfortable with getting tickled on the ribs—he doesn’t even feel anything there for that matter, anyway. 

𖤓 Really insecure about his laugh and how he reacts when getting tickled. At school he’s just reduced to being Soda’s ‘ugly friend’ or ‘side-kick;’ the comments get to him more than he’d like to admit.

𖤓 Covers his mouth when getting tickled (because of his tooth gap) and sometimes his entire face. 

𖤓 Compliments make him sooooo incredibly weak. Taunts and teases he can handle but if someone is genuinely complimenting his reactions and his laughing 🙅🏾‍♀️??? Oh, he’s a dead man. 

𖤓 Ticklish kinda everywhere but mainly on his hips, thighs, collarbones and neck. But only Evie can tickle/touch his thighs because it’s a more intimate spot to him.  

𖤓 Steve’s laugh starts pretty loud but then drops to a quick, staccato snicker. To put it simply, his laugh is a mix of Mr. Crawling and the Pillsbury Doughboy. His laugh does not match his face or demeanor AT ALL and his friends find immense joy in pointing that out whenever they can. 

𖤓 Gets tickled by Soda and Evie the most!!!

𖤓 Like Dally and Johnny, Steve didn’t grow up with tickling and only found out he was ticklish and when meeting the Curtis’. He was tickled by Soda when the two were playfully wrestling each other. 

𖤓 When walking through the school halls he covers his sides because Soda AND Evie will be trying to poke him as he passes by them. His best friend and girlfriend always team up with each other to tickle him to pieces even though he voices its very unfair. 

𖤓 Falls to the floor as soon as he gets tickled; it’s hilarious as hell to watch. 

𖤓 Likes being tickled by the gang for sure but 💞LOVES💞 getting tickled by his girlfriend. I’m aware she’s little to none mentioned in the novel (like once or twice) but let me have this, okay? 

𖤓 Is soooooo stupidly weak to tickle kisses (specifically on the neck) when it comes to Evie. He’ll just melt into a puddle of giggles and snorts. 

𖤓 Oh yeah by the way he snorts! But not like Dally where his is subtle. If Steve snorts? You’ll know in a heartbeat. His snorts are so fucking loud and they’re so frequent he can’t even smother them or even hide them. 

𖤓 His reactions are like night and day with Evie and the gang. When he’s with his gang, he’s screaming, kicking, and cussing their asses out. But with Evie??? That man is SAT.

𖤓 Evie knows he loves getting tickled by her, though. He doesn’t make the fact subtle and she thinks it’s the cutest thing ever and it’s one of her favorite things about him. 

𖤓 He won’t stop Evie when she’s tickling him; not even push or shove or even attempt to try to hold her wrists. 

𖤓 Cannot STAND Evie’s nails…one skitter down his sides and he’s hysterically laughing like a psycho. 

𖤓 Gets trapped in Soda’s tickle hugs all the time and genuinely screams bloody murder whilst cackling as Soda mercilessly squeezes his hips 😞🪦🥀 …

𖤓 His inner thighs are really ticklish. Sometimes Evie wants to be romantic and trace there when they’re cuddling but is always interrupted by Steve clamping his legs together and cackling like a straight up psycho 🪦x2…

𖤓 Will mouth off, be bratty and annoying when getting tickled by Evie but he’d be a fool if he were to genuinely cuss at her like he does the gang. He did that once during one of their tickle sessions and he genuinely recalls seeing the pearly gates for a split second with how bad he was getting wrecked. 

𖤓 The first sign of a Lee mood he is calling up Evie IMMEDITALEDY. If she’s out of town or MIA he’ll just bother Soda which usually just descends into a tickle fight/wrestle. 

𖤓 Speaking of, when he’s in a Lee mood he’s kinda just very…touchy and affectionate; leaning on someone, draping his arm over someone’s shoulders etc etc. 

𖤓 He mostly falls into Lee moods when he’s sort of insecure, overthinking his worth or worrying about his home life. He also doesn't care for the ‘t-word;’ it’s honestly just a word to him. 

𖤓 “YOHOHOU S-SUHUCK AT THIHIHIHIS, Y’KNOW?” “IHI COHOHOULD DO THIS AHAHAHALL DAY!” “GAHAH—SHIHIT! I-IS THAHAT ALL YAHAH GOHOHOT?!” 

𖤓 Since Steve is a mechanic, he uses the mechanic creeper to get under cars to repair them. But sometimes he gets stuck or needs help sliding off the board. A good half of the time when he calls for a hand it’s his other coworkers who snicker a bit but help nonetheless. But the other half? It’s Soda Curtis ‘helping him’ by squeezing his hips until he can’t think straight. 

𖤓 ALWAYS has his guard up when working shifts at the DX; Sodapop will find any excuse to squeeze his hips or poke him in the side. 

𖤓 Will fight back so much that he eventually wears himself out and just has to lay there and take it. Unless he’s up against Soda; he’s fighting tooth and nail if Soda is tickling him.  

𖤓 Has ticklish collarbones and absolutely. hates. it. The gang frequently pins his arms up or behind his back and casually sits on his waist to lightly poke at his collarbones. Steve wishes he could save face by saying it doesn’t tickle that bad but it really does to the point where Darry once yelled for someone to turn the TV off because he confused Steve’s screams with Mickey Mouse’s 😭 …

𖤓 Is very hard on himself when it comes to school; arguably more than Ponyboy is. He’s one of those kids that if you ask what they got on a test they’ll be like: “I failed that test, man. I got a B-…I’m so freaking dumb…” Oh, Steve gets his shit absolutely rocked by Darry anytime he says bullshit like that. 

𖤓 Gets cheer-up tickles from the gang when his dad is being a complete ass. While the comments at school and work do get to Steve, his dad is the one that really reinforces it; telling Steve stuff like: “Why’re your teeth so fucked up, anyway?” or “I really don’t care what grade you got, Steven. The only thing I care about is the 6 hours of silence I get when you’re there; at school.” His dad just really reinforces Steve’s insecurities and it’s happened so many times that Steve’s dejected look gives the gang all the answers they need. 

SODA “SODAPOP” CURTIS (50/50 SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 ‼️OH❗️BUDDY‼️DON’T❗️GET‼️ME❗️STARTEDDDDDDD‼️

𖤓 He gets cuteness aggression frequently and takes it out on his family all day everyday. Soda is honestly just a Southern grandma at heart because he’ll honestly just be pinching the gang’s cheeks at the most random of times; he does it especially when he’s tickling them. 

𖤓 I honestly can’t see him getting in bad Ler moods like Darry or Two-bit. Like, Soda views tickling as a way for him to blow off steam and ease tension. If he’s tickling someone he’s doing it just because he can 🤷🏾‍♀️. 

𖤓 The embodiment of the “Aweughh! So cute <3!!!” Speed meme when tickling the gang. 

𖤓 💕💖💞ADORES💕💖💞 giving tickle hugs—his main victim being his big brother as I’ve said. In Soda’s defense, Darry makes it waaaay too easy. 

𖤓 Soda loves yapping to the person he’s tickling!!! When he’s tickling someone they honestly cannot even get a word in; by the time the gang processes Soda’s teases and tries to defend themselves he’s already tickling another spot and saying a whole other set of teases. 

𖤓 Is the biggest cooer alive. 

𖤓 “N’awww!” and “D’aaaughhh…” and “Aweeee…!” is just 50% of his vocabulary when tickling people. 

𖤓 Loves it when he and Steve have the same shift because instead of greeting him like a normal person, Soda’ll just taze his best friend’s side as they walk past one another. 

𖤓 Gives compliments like nobody’s business and they’re all 100% genuine ☹️💕; he’s a lover, y’all! 

𖤓 But while he does give compliments do not think for a SECOND he can’t be mean…because he can be MEAN if so provoked. 

𖤓 Knows how to really get into people’s head’s with teases because being the middle child, he’s been on both ends of tickling an equal amount of times. 

𖤓 Gives fake pity like no one else’s business, like: “Man, it must suck to be this ticklish…” or “This spot must be reeeeally bad to get you squeakin’ like that, huh~?” 

𖤓 Can get the gang laughing without even trying, honestly. My manz will just be spamming jokes, teases, taunts like rapid fire. 

𖤓 Does this thing he likes to call a “Tickle Toll Booth”; he randomly blocks the gang’s way and the only way to get past Soda is to ‘pay’ him with “Tickle Taxes”. To put it simply, it’s just an excuse he has to wreck the heck out of his friends until he’s satisfied. This annoys Dally tremendously.  

𖤓 Gets into tickle fights with Ponyboy and Steve the most—pretty self explanatory.

𖤓 If someone is grumpy or frowning a bit too much, Soda’ll poke their sides relentlessly until he gets a laugh or at the very least a smile. He softly teases like: “Awe…come on~! Gimmie that award winnin’ smile~!” SHUT THAT SHIT UPPPPPP 🫩💯❌🥱🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️💯‼️💯‼️

𖤓 Refers to “tickle spots” as “sweet spots” or “giggle spots” ironically. 

𖤓 Tickles Ponyboy, Darry and Steve the most. 

𖤓 Insists constantly that the gang’s shirt collars are crooked so he offers to fix them, which, he does pretend to do but after a couple seconds he just lightly tickles the crooks of their necks. Ponyboy falls victim to this an embarrassing amount of times. 

𖤓 Always laughs with whoever he’s tickling; he honestly just can’t help himself! 

𖤓 If he’s tag teaming with someone, he can and will turn on the person if he feels like it. Accept Steve—the two have a written down alliance 🫡‼️

𖤓 If someone is ticking him off, he’ll slowly count to ten and by the time he gets to ten the person better be out of his eyesight or he’s wrecking their shit. 

𖤓 Soda is very perceptive and can practically smell when someone is in a Lee mood. He doesn’t outright say anything about the said Lee mood one of his friends is having but will do subtle hints as a way to ask if he should help them out. 

𖤓 Nicknames tickle spots like: “You suuuure Mr. Tummy doesn’t wanna get tickled? You suruue~?” 

𖤓 After tickling someone, he always wraps them in a hug or affectionately ruffles their hair.

𖤓 Playfully evil laughs when wiggling his fingers over a tickle spot like the maniac he is. 

𖤓 Does the human sandwich thing (rolling someone in a blanket so only their feet and head are showing) during sleepovers constantly; it brings him such immense joy. He does this mainly to Darry; always feigning innocence.   

𖤓 Tickle interrogations are genuinely one of his hobbies. If the last slice of cake is gone? Tickle interrogation. His pajama shirt is missing? Tickle interrogation—you get the idea. When this happens, Soda is always the bad cop and whoever feels like helping him out is the good cop. 

𖤓 He has a side job of doing magic tricks! It holds a high rating, trust 😗!!!

Soda, walking towards Johnny: “Heya, Johnnycakes! Didja know there’s a coin behind your ear?”  

Johnny, turning to Soda: “…Huh?” 

Soda: “There’s a coin behind your ear, man!”

Johnny, scratching the back of his neck: “No, there ain’t…” 

Soda, lightly fluttering his fingers at the back of Johnny’s ear: “Yes there is! See?”

Johnny, scrunching his shoulders and blindly swatting at Sodapop: “N-NO!! NOHOH SODA NONONOHOH!!!” 

Soda, innocently smirking: “Johnny, quit screamin’, man! I’m tryin’ to get the coin from behind your ear!” 

LEE:

𖤓 Is the text book definition of not being able to take what he dishes out. Like, if you look that concept up in the dictionary, you’ll just see Soda’s face smack DAB in the center.  

𖤓 Will poke and prod like nobody’s business but as soon as someone even HINTS to tickling him he’s bargaining like his life is on the line (because 10/10 it always is).  

𖤓 “N-Nononohoh wahait wait WAHAHAIT!! L-Let’s t-tahalk thihis out first, huh? Wait pleheHEASE! Wait wahait WAHAHAIT!!!” He’s so fucking annoying pour gasoline all over him and throw him in a fire. 

𖤓 Ticklish almost everywhere but his worst spots are his tummy, navel, underarms and feet. 

𖤓 Sandy used to call him “pretty boy” anytime she’d tickle him. He misses that nickname so much but would rather die than try to casually ask to be called that from anyone he knows. Steve calls him that in, like, a best friend teasing kind of way so Soda guesses he should be grateful in a sense but it’s nowhere near the same. 

𖤓 Will scream like a school girl if his navel is so much as poked. It’s his melt spot but he can’t take tickles there and taps out as fast as Two-Bit pit-pockets 🫶🏾. 

𖤓 Is so fucking dramatic when in a Lee mood. Goodness grace y’all know the “I wish I had a free bag of chiiiiiipsss…” meme? That is Soda when it comes to tickling; “I wish someone would tickle meeee…” while he looks around aimlessly. 

𖤓 Instead, I don’t think Sodapop would straight up say ‘tickle’ because that’s embarrassing as hell for him. So he’d try and dodge around it like: “Hey! Real super random thing I wanna try! Let’s take turns tryin’ to make the other laugh. Okay? Okay. Great? Great! You go first 🫣!!!” Like the implication of wanting to get his shit wrecked is there you ain’t slick, mister. 

𖤓 Had no problem asking for tickles when he was younger, actually; he doesn’t know what happened. Maturity? Embarrassment finally catching up to him? He isn’t quite sure. 

𖤓 He has no problem tickling people first in order to get tickled. But, if the person just laughs and shoves him away Soda gets visibly annoyed. How many indirect signs can a person not get? YEESH 🫩‼️😒‼️🙄

𖤓 Always tries to annoy Darry so that he can tickle him. It works all the time (partially because Darry knows Soda wants to get tickled). 

𖤓 He’s the third most ticklish in the gang; right after Stay Bronze and Horseboy.

𖤓 Will beg and plead and squirm and do ANYTHING to avoid a raspberry to the stomach. He gets DESPERATE; it’s kind of pathetic, really 😔 …

𖤓 Because not only is his tummy his worst spot, the people who mainly do it to him (COUGH COUGH DARRY COUGH COUGH TWO-BIT) have a growing in/faint stubble that makes it ten times worse. And if the two are feeling extra evil they’ll nuzzle their faces while blowing raspberries on his stomach. 

𖤓 Has this Dru from Despicable Me ahh laugh where his hair is subtly swooshing in the wind and there’s sparkles everywhere around his face and his teeth are shining like pearls and birds are chirping in the distance. He is THE pretty boy of the gang, don’t get it twisted. 

𖤓 His laugh is pretty charming, though. He’s got a sort of subtle rich person laugh with a slight pitch to it even though he’s as poor as dirt. In the novel, Pony describes Soda’s personality as “getting drunk off of living” and I feel like that shows when Soda’s laughing. The guy sounds drunk and sporadic but also genuinely happy and silly. Trust assured even if someone’s pissed at him they can’t help but smile when he laughs. 

𖤓 With the amount of screaming and pleading and squirming bro does, one would think he’s as ticklish as Ponyboy or Johnny but he’s like…average at best. He’s just dramatic as hell. 

𖤓 Does signature handshakes with Steve and always ends up getting his stomach poked. He would try to stop the inevitable but…it’s inevitable, y’know? 

𖤓 Is very sassy when it comes to doing chores. When Darry reminds him to do them he’ll be all flippant like: “I’ll do it later, Dare…the laundry ain’t goin’ nowhere.” but as SOON as Darry gives him a warning finger wiggle Soda is UP out of his seat. 

𖤓 Is really self loathing without realizing it. In the book it states that Soda considers himself to be pretty dumb and for some reason the fandom interprets that as him not being able to read 😭? I’m pretty sure the fella can read…just maybe not as well as, say, Pony or Steve.

𖤓 But yeah. Since Soda dropped out of high school to support his family he compares his intelligence to the gang’s a lot. Like, if Steve were to say a complex word like “hubris” or something, Soda always feels like an idiot for quietly asking Darry what the word means. 

𖤓 Ponyboy, scooting closer to Soda on their bed: “Pepsi, can you read my essay for me?”

Sodapop, resting his head on Ponyboy’s shoulder: “Awe, come on, Pone…you know I can’t read.” 

Ponyboy, sighing and visibly getting agitated: “…Yes, you can…but okay. If you don’t wanna read it that’s fine, I—”

Sodapop, sitting back up and scratching the back of his neck: “—Golly, Pony you know that ain’t what I meant! I’m just not as smart as you and Stevie are, y’know? I don’t wanna mispronounce nothin’ ‘n ruin your, uh…writers flow.”  

Ponyboy, scribbling under Soda’s arm: “You ain’t ruinin’ nothin’! God, y’know I’m sick and tired of you actin’ like you ain’t got a brain up in that skull of yours!” 

Sodapop, squirming: “P-PoHOHOne!!! Pohony waHAHAit wahahait wahait!!!” 

Ponyboy, putting his essay to the side so he can fully tickle his brother: “‘Wait’ yourself. You pissed me off real bad with that comment of yours. Take. It. Back.” 

𖤓 Nightmares run in the Curtis family (Outsiders musical refrence 😛) but Soda is the most stubborn about insisting that he doesn’t have them. Since Soda usually helps his brothers with their nightmares, he gets kind of awkward when it happens to him. He’ll wake up and go to Darry (because he doesn’t want to bother Pony and Soda likes being reminded he’s still a younger brother). The two always have a heart to heart before Soda shyly asks for light tickles which Darry always happily does. 

𖤓 “IHIHI’M GOHOHONNA DIHIHIIE!!!” “NONONOHOH NOT THAHAT SPOHOT NOT THAHAHAT SPAHAHAT!!!” “WAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT x10000!!!” 

𖤓 Pushes on people’s shoulders when getting tickled and prays for the best. 

𖤓 Has a deathly ticklish navel and thinks it’s a huge aura loss. The gang just thinks it’s funny. 

𖤓 He gets nicknames from the gang such as “Alarm Clock” and “Military Horn” because he just straight up hoots and hollers nonsense when he’s getting wrecked. 

𖤓 Takes YEARS to get ready in the bathroom and has to be tickled out of there so Pony, Darry or literally anyone in the gang can use it. 

𖤓 Sometimes when Darry and Pony fight and Soda isn’t in the middle of it, Soda goes on walks and lightly traces his forearms as he does so. Unlike Darry where their mom traced Darry’s forearms to get him to sleep, she did it so that Soda could wake up. And Soda sometimes thinks that maybe, just maybe, if he does it long enough, the walk would end up just being a dream and he’ll wake up in his mother’s lap again. 

𖤓 Darry and Ponyboy get so upset sometimes that they don’t even notice Soda coming back to the house at like, three in the morning. Soda uses the trace method to try to fall asleep but it never works. 

JOHNATHAN “JOHNNY” ANDREW CADE (LEE-LEANING SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 When it comes to teasing, Johnny realizes what he personally finds flustering and then automatically uses those kinds of tactics on someone else. 

𖤓 He’s somewhat of a shy and silent Ler unless you happen to be Dally or Ponyboy. Pony is the baby of the gang and Dally is Dally; Johnny is NOT letting the two of them catch him lacking any more than necessary. 

𖤓 He does kind of change his teasing based on who he’s tickling, though. For example, if he’s tickling Ponyboy he’ll just keep saying “tickle” over and over again and do baby talk. If Johnny’s tickling Dally, he’ll just go for his ribs and comment on his dimples; easy work 👌🏾😌. 

𖤓 Gets flustered when his friends are like: “IHIHI’M GOHONNA GEHEHET YOHOU BAHAHACK FOHOR THIHIHIS!!!” because he knows damn well that whatever he’s giving is going to be given back even worse. It’s always worth it seeing the gang let loose and laugh a little, though.

𖤓 But the gang has learned over the years to never ever mention when Johnny’s flustered when he tickles them because homeboy gets pissed and just gets meaner. 

𖤓 Ironically, he always mentions if someone is blushing when he’s tickling them. God forbid there’s even a slight hint of red on someone’s face…Johnny’s calling it out and teasing about it relentlessly. 

𖤓 “Now what if I…go here? Or here? Or riiiight over here~?” “Your geese relatives are callin’, man. They’re wonderin’ when you’re gonna attend the next migration with alla that squawkin’ you’re doing.” “‘It tickles?’ Golly…I would’ve never guessed. I thought you were just laughin’ for the hell of it. Thanks for lettin’ me know.” THIS MAN IS 👏🏾S👏🏾A👏🏾S👏🏾S👏🏾Y👏🏾‼️‼️‼️

𖤓 Uses his silent nature as a way to sneak up on people and poke them unexpectedly. Johnny’s hands are always in his pockets anyway and so when the person he poked is looking for the culprit, Johnny just quickly puts them back in his pockets, feigning innocence with a sweet smile. 

𖤓 Mainly tickles people if they’re pissing him off. Not maliciously, but enough to make them quit their nonsense for a bit; Johnnycake’s a humbler. 

𖤓 Also, the fact that the gang doesn’t really fight back against him kinda fuels him to be meaner.

𖤓 Always pinches his friend’s side to get their attention. 

Johnny, poking right above Steve’s hip: “Hey, Steve?”

Steve, hugging his middles: “GAHAH snrt SHIHIT!!! Ohoh, hehey Johnnycakes…whahat’s uhuhup?”

𖤓 ^ He also does this to Ponyboy in class 24/7. Pony yelps and jumps like three meters out of his seat and Johnny finds it hilarious. It’s also funny to watch the younger attempt to quietly cuss Johnny out. 

𖤓 Is VERY competitive when it comes to games…ESPECIALLY charades. Genuinely nobody is safe when Johnny decides he wants to win. He jabs people in the sides to distract them and keeps playing as if he’s not currently wrecking someone. 

𖤓 Likes tickling someone and then pining the blame on someone else. He’s smart about it, though. He only does this when they’re all walking somewhere or are in a group hug so it’s less obvious. 

Darry, stopping walking on the sidewalk as he felt someone poke his back: “GNAHAH! Whihich one of y’all—”

Johnny, casually walking still: “—It was Two.” 

Two-Bit, turning to Johnny: “The f—WHAT?! It was you! Not me!”

Darry, turning to Two-Bit: “Oho, you think you’re a real funny fella, huh, Keith?” 

Two-Bit, backing away slowly: “Y-Yes! I mean, no! Nohoh!!! Darry I-I didn’t do nothin’! I swear!” 

Johnny: 😗😇

𖤓 Would occasionally team up with Steve and Soda and wreck the hell out of Ponyboy when they were all younger—they all still do sometimes. 

𖤓 Only gets Ler moods when he sees his friends being broody or sad. 

𖤓 ‼️HATES IT WHEN HIS FRIENDS ARE BEING SELF DEPRECATING‼️ He loathes it not only because his friends are being mean to themselves but because Johnny knows on a personal level how badly it can affect one’s self worth. Whether it’s a joke or not, Johnny does not stand for self-deprecation and will tickle his gang until they say something nice about themselves. 

𖤓 To add on, he also hates it when his friends try to fight by themselves. They’re a gang; not an uncoordinated circus—if they need help taking on another gang….they have mouths…they need to use them. But Johnny knows how to patch people up due to his beatings from his parents and he’ll lightly wrap bandages and clean wounds after fights and be all like: “What did ya learn?” while lightly poking their sides to elicit a small giggle and admission to receiving help. 

𖤓 He also hates it when his friends aren’t taking care of themselves; Two-Bit drinking, Darry overworking himself etc etc. It’s gotten to a point where everyone just completely snitches on the other to Johnny. Johnny gives a STERN talking to before tickling the daylights out of them.  

𖤓 One of Johnny’s pet peeves is the gang hiding injuries (hypocritical as HELL). If they’re being stubborn about getting a check-up, Johnny’ll give them a bit of ‘convincing’ if you catch my drift. 

𖤓 Very flexible and hyperaware due to his street-smarts and home life; he can see when hits are coming and can block them pretty easily. So if he’s tickling someone he just casually pushes their limbs away or simply dodges. 

𖤓 Latches onto Dallas’ ribs anytime he’s acting a fool. Has this “Try me.” expression that makes Dally humourlessly quiet. 

𖤓 Tickles for harder/longer if someone cusses at him when getting tickled.

𖤓 Loves making his gang laugh since he isn’t really the best when it comes to expressing himself with words. He loves the gang so dearly but he has a hard time articulating those feelings, so, tickling is his best bet to showing the gang he really cares 💓. 

𖤓 Adores giving cheer-up tickles. He was kind of iffy of them at first but eased up to them as he got older. 

𖤓 Got mentored by Mr. Curtis on how to tickle people—Ponyboy’s 101% convinced that’s why Johnny can be so mean sometimes 🥀 …

𖤓 When it comes to group projects, Johnny and Ponyboy are that one duo that cannot stop laughing when presenting. Johnny pokes Ponyboy’s sides as a way to tell him to lock in but underestimates how ticklish his best friend can be and the two just get lost in complete hysterics. They’re always the last ones that end up going 😭…

𖤓 Has slight tremors so he can’t tickle people for that long and very pissed off about it. 

𖤓 He always worries if he is crossing boundaries or making someone uncomfortable; especially with harder to read people like Dally and Darry. When tickling the gang, he asks “You havin’ fun?” as a tease but also as a genuine question. 

𖤓 For the five days that Johnny and Ponyboy were hiding in the church, Johnny would help Ponyboy fall asleep (and get his mind off of things) by lightly tickling him.  

LEE:

𖤓 You’ll never guess it but…surprise surprise!!! Johnny didn’t grow up with tickling because his parents were too busy being abusive ASSHOLES to introduce it to him.   

𖤓 Not really a big swearer but will swear if one of his death spots are tickled which always gets a kick out of the gang. 

𖤓 Will only say “stop” when he actually wants his tickler to stop. 

𖤓 Dally and Ponyboy are the ones that mainly tickle him. Johnny gets kinda shy with them already but anyone else in the gang just makes him hide his head on his jeans jacket. 

𖤓 Ticklish everywhere but his death spots are his underarms, ears and sides.  

𖤓 Needs to be lightly pinned or not at all—he freaks out if not. Johnny needs an escape at all costs even though the gang would never purposefully hurt him; he just needs one. 

𖤓 Has a very naturally quiet and raspy laugh that can of course get louder depending on where his friends are tickling. Primarily hiccups and occasionally squeaks and shrieks in between his laugh like the stinker he is. 

𖤓 Kind of sad that the gang doesn’t include him when they wrestle or have tickle fights. He understands why they don’t but at the same time he still kinda feels left out. 

𖤓 Johnny is always on his toes—not only because he’s a Greaser but because a fella named Dallas Winston does not let him rest for a second. Johnny’s stretching? Dally wiggles his fingers under Johnny’s underarm. Johnny’s spacing out? Dally playfully blows on Johnny’s ear to make sure he’s paying attention. You get the picture? Johnny doesn’t know peace 😮‍💨 …

𖤓 HATES how ticklish his ears are; he thinks they’re so inconvenient. Sometimes Pony wants to whisper gossip to Johnny when they’re at school but he just can’t because Johnny’ll start giggling and wriggling away.    

𖤓 Originally, the gang avoided whispering in Johnny’s ear because they noticed him flinching away anytime they tried. But Dallas, though, knew the difference between his little brother’s PTSD flinches and him being too ticklish flinches. So Dally was the one that informed the rest of the gang that Johnny was okay—he was just really ticklish 🤧.

𖤓 Light tickling is his biggest weakness oh my Lord this kid can’t sit still if anyone tries doing that to him.

𖤓 Anticipation gets this guy SO BAD. He’ll be red in the face and shrieking before the tickling even starts. 

𖤓 Can say “tickle” but will say it quietly and blush a bit. Ugh what a loser 🥱…

𖤓 When someone is tickling him, he can never look them in the eye. 

𖤓 Has a bunch of different reactions to Lee moods. Sometimes he flinches a bit more and covers his sides; it took the gang (minus Dallas) awhile to figure out that Johnny wasn’t scared of them. 

𖤓 “O-OKAY! IHIHI—squeak! AHALRIGHT! I GIHIVE!!!” “QUIHIT IHHIHIT!” “NAHAH—hic! CUHUHUT IHIT OHOHOUT!!!” He hates that he squeaks and hates even more when his friends tease him about it 🥀. 

𖤓 Was actually tickled by Mrs. Curtis first. She was patching Johnny up from another altercation with his father and gently asked if there was anywhere else she should clean. Johnny then quickly and quietly shook his head no but Mrs. Curtis was all like: “Are you sure, honey?” Johnny didn’t answer because he was spacing out and she gently squeezed his side to get his attention and he SHRIEKED. 

𖤓 Has to be verbally told or given a sign that he’s going to get wrecked so surprise tickles are out of the question. Pokes are just fine but full on surprise tickle attacks freak him out. 

𖤓 Hides in his jeans jacket all the time when getting tickled. If he doesn’t have it for whatever reason, he turns away or hides his face in his forearm ☹️💞. 

𖤓 Gets beyond flustered at genuine compliments or his friends saying they want to see him smile/laugh.

𖤓 The gang constantly plays the ‘Keep Your Arms Up’ game and the leaderboard is always changing every single week. But guess who’s barely even on it? Johnathan Cade himself. He’s tried keeping his arms up when playing…he really has but just the mere thought of his underarms being tickled sends him into hysterics so when the game starts he just shoots his arms down the MINUTE someone wiggles their fingers there 😭💔. 

𖤓 Folds so bad if he’s being tickle interrogated for whatever reason. One wiggle to his underarms and he’ll be telling his whole life story. 

𖤓 Swears on everybody’s alive mama (which is just his and Two-Bit’s 🫢 …) he doesn’t swing on anybody but will pack a punch if his stomach is tickled. 

𖤓 Is so giggly after getting tickled. It’s genuinely so hard for the gang to not tickle him all over again. Johnny genuinely tries to calm down but giggles too much to calm down. It takes him a good minute but he gets there eventually. 

𖤓 Can’t handle more than two people tickling him. 

𖤓 Gets numb with some Lee moods and honest to God doesn’t know what to do with himself. 

𖤓 Other times, he’s more jumpy and quieter than usual. So, it’s really just a matter of how good the gang is at reading Johnny Cade. 

𖤓 But unfortunately for Johnny, his gang talks with their hands a lot which can also heighten his Lee mood. For example:  

Darry, putting the dishes away: “Hey, Johnny. Y’know where Pony is? He needs’ta finish his math homework.”  

Johnny: “Nah. I haven’t seen him.”

Darry, casually stretching his fingers: “Really? You sure?” 

Johnny, crossing his arms over his stomach: “A-Ahactually? H-He’s, uh…h-hiding ihin the back.” 

Darry, walking to the back: “Oookay? Thanks, Johnnycakes.” 

𖤓 Also gets really guilty when in a Lee mood; he just feels like a straight up inconvenience for wanting it. Johnny’ll just walk around and do that guy thing where they tuck their hands under the opposite underarm. Anytime he does this hopes and prays that his friends don’t comment on it. 

PONYBOY “PONY” MICHAEL CURTIS (LEE-LEANING SWITCH)

LER:

𖤓 (Ignore the first bullet point if you don’t watch Berleezy; Berleezy fans ily). I’m going to hold y’all’s hands when I say this: Ponyboy Curtis can be a pretty ruthless Ler in my opinion. Ugh…and here y’all come in the comments. “Emery! You can’t call Pony a Ler! That’s not right!” MAN FUCK THAT‼️‼️‼️ 

𖤓 It always kinda ticked me off when I saw that some people stated that Ponyboy doesn’t have a Ler bone in his body. While I get where y’all are coming from I also kinda don’t. As a younger sibling I take GENUINE OFFENSE. We can defend ourselves just FINE, thank you very much. Like yes, Pony is the youngest and gets tickled the most but don’t underestimate him by any means. 

𖤓 He’s usually a tag-teamer, though, I’m not even gonna hold you. His main partners in crime are Johnny and Soda.

𖤓 My guy ain’t got a lick of loyalty; he will be the first person to throw his partner in crime under the bus. He is the first to skedaddle if the person being tickled becomes the tickler; Pony ain’t trying to be next. 

𖤓 He always has to tickle the gang to get back stuff that’s RIGHTFULLY his. His friends have sticky fingers and would keep his stuff until the end of time if he didn’t point out that what they have is his.

𖤓 “Tell me tell me tell me tell meeeee!” while relentlessly poking someone’s sides or stomach.

𖤓 Will mimick any types of threats. He’ll either repeat what someone just said in an elongated tone or do that “Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh 😜😝🤪😛😋!!!” thing younger siblings do.

𖤓 Is so serious when it comes to tickling someone, good Lord. Like, he has a whole plan mapped out in his head and he’s sneaking around the house like some descendant of Detective James Carter and then he just ATTACKS when no one expects it. Shit’s scary. 

𖤓 He mainly tickles Johnny, Soda and Darry. Johnny because that’s his best friend and if you aren’t constantly annoying the hell out of your best friend…what are you doing? Darry and Soda just piss this kid all the way off.

𖤓 Like, his older brother’s LIVE off of ragebaiting him and it ignites a fire inside of Pony he didn’t even know he had. 

𖤓 “‘It tickles?’ Man, sucks to suck.” “One…two…damn, I lost count. I wouldn’t have to start over so many times if you just stopped floppin’ like a fish outta water!” “I didn’t know this spot got ya so bad…! Just wait until I tell the guys about this~!” 

𖤓 If Darry isn’t in a bad mood or isn't stressed, Pony will continuously poke his back to try and persuade him to let him go to The Drive-In or stay out later with Johnny.

Pony, gently scratching below Darry’s shoulders: “Can I go to the Drive-In? Pleaseeeee?”

Darry, folding the laundry: “No, Pohony. Now shut uhup and q-quit bohohotherin’ me.” 

Pony, pinching the back of Darry’s ribs: “But I did all of my homework this time! C’mon, Dare! Please please please???” 

Darry, pushing on Ponyboy’s face: “NAHAH!! POHOHONY!!” 

Pony, innocently grinning: “That’s me! So can I go to the movies? Please please please please—?”

Darry, lightly shoving Ponyboy away: “G-GOHOD FINE FINE FINE!!! JUHUHUST STOHOP!!” 

Pony: “🕺🏼!!!” 

𖤓 Pony eats, sleeps and breathes revenge tickles. Lil bro has a ton of pent up frustration on being picked on, tickled and teased the most. 

𖤓 The Curtis family has passed down the ‘Cut the Pickle’ game like a family heirloom. Mr. Curtis introduced it to Mrs. Curtis when they were kids, Mrs. Curtis introduced it to Darry, Darry introduced it to Sodapop, Sodapop introduced it to Ponyboy and Ponyboy then introduced it to Johnny! Pony was THE victim of the ‘Cut the Pickle’ game and was RELIEVED when he and Johnny became bffs. 

𖤓 Is given piggyback rides from time to time and is always fluttering his fingers against the neck of the person giving him the piggy back ride. Ponyboy always melodramatically acts like he has to do it or he’ll fall to his death. 

𖤓 Will poke people’s sides or stomach to get their attention and acts completely oblivious to their reactions—he gets it from Johnny.

𖤓 ^ He does this especially with Johnny in class. The two just poke each other back and forth like hot potatoes. 

𖤓 Two-Bit yaps about people’s info, sure, but Ponyboy will give full on precise note worthy secrets on people’s weaknesses (especially on Soda and Darry…which much love). For a price, of course (🚬)…

𖤓 Rats out Soda’s weaknesses to Steve constantly.

𖤓 Starts/initiates tickle fights on a daily 🫪!!!

Ponyboy, reading a book on the couch: “Dal? Soda said that your hairline probably looks like it should be the seventh wonder of the world with how much it’s probably recedin’.” 

Dally, turning to Sodapop: “Oho, really now?”  

Sodapop, backing away: “I-Ihi never said that! I-I would!! But I didn’t!!!”

(Pony just says what he wants to say and says someone else said it 😭). 

𖤓 ^ The little shit just watches with the faintest smirk as he sits on the couch and doodles in his notebook.  

𖤓 Observes tickle fights from afar so he knows everyone’s weaknesses and writes them all down in one of his nerdy notebooks. 

𖤓 His brothers rush though their process of getting ready for work and Pony honestly can’t help it if there head and arms get stuck in their shirt and their sides are exposed and his hands JUST SO HAPPEN to poke their stomach. His fingers slipped! It happens to the best of us!!!

𖤓 If guilt tripping doesn’t work, he’ll just tickle people so they can come to the movies with him or go watch a sunset or something. 

𖤓 Has done the palm read on everyone except Darrel and is determined to do it before he dies. Pony’s tried on numerous occasions and insists it’s important for ‘science purposes’ but Darry cannot keep still for the life of him. 

𖤓 Pony gets in tickle wars—not fights, wars—with Steve and Two-Bit on a daily. When it’s those three against each other it’s every man for himself. No alliances, no NOTHING. It’s entertaining as hell to watch. 

𖤓 Teams up with Soda constantly to get Darry to loosen up a bit or just freaking RELAX for once. He’d never admit it out loud but he really feels like he’s the reason why Darry has to act twice his age. So, in a way, Pony tickling the snot out of Darry with Soda kinda lets Darry be a kid again. Besides, it’s the least Pony can do but at the same time it’s the only thing he can do. 

𖤓 Gets really fidgety when in a Ler mood. The dude’s already fidgety as is but when he’s in a Ler mood his hands go absolutely haywire. 

𖤓 Is so annoyingly petty. He’ll mention something MONTHS ago when tickling somebody and be all like “YEAH. That’s what this is for. So take that.” and the person he’s tickling deadass has no clue what he’s on about. This happens to Darry all the time 😔 …

𖤓 Makes the gang list off Paul Newman movies IN ORDER to get him to stop tickling them. He don’t play when it comes to his movies; don’t forget. 

LEE:

𖤓 Canonically ticklish and I’m still not forgiving S.E. Hinton for writing that jumpscare that was that tickle scene with Ponyboy and his chuddy ass brothers. Reading that scene IN CLASS was sooo embarassing oh my goodness never ever ever again…

𖤓 Cannot handle raspberries or nibbles to save his life; he’d rather die, actually. 

𖤓 Is a genuine goner if he’s up against Darry’s killer tickle kisses.  

𖤓 He won’t admit it but he loves getting tickled by his family. He just hates how weak and childish it makes him feel sometimes. 

𖤓 When getting tickled, he just hugs himself and kicks his legs and hopes for the best. He’s the youngest of the group so y’all know he gets teased and cooed religiously for that but also just in general as well. 

𖤓 He’ll arch his back, stomp his feet, flail his arms around and push halfheartedly at the person tickling him but suspiciously not move an inch away. Huh…intetesting…🤔…

𖤓 It’s canon that he gets tickled awake by his brothers but I just wanted to include that here because I think it’s so stinking cute. Sometimes, Ponyboy stays in bed just to get tickled awake. And if that doesn’t happen he’s killing himself. 

𖤓 Has a pretty cute laugh I’d say; it’s boyish yet kinda hiccupy and squeaky and has voice cracks in between sometimes cuz y’know puberty and all that good stuff. He’s FOURTEEN‼️‼️‼️ He’s been fourteen for a MONTH‼️‼️‼️

𖤓 Blushes very easily like Dally but not as prominent as him. 

𖤓 Ticklish literally everywhere but especially his neck, tummy and knees. He’s genuinely the biggest Lee in the gang everybody act surprised 😲‼️‼️🤯⁉️ 

𖤓 Super pouty after getting tickled because genuinely how dare his family ruin his tuffness (that wasn’t even there to begin with, highkey). 

𖤓 Oh, the gang has such a FIELD DAY with this poor boy’s knees. Johnny loves doing the egg-crack thing when he and Pony are sitting next to one another in class. Pony has to either bury his head in his book, try to stifle his giggles or try to tickle Johnny back. Johnny finds his bff jumping like some jack-in-the-box the funniest thing to exist. Ohhhh the brothers ever 🥹💓💞💕. 

𖤓 “I HAHATE YOHOHOOOU!!!” “NAHAH!! NOHOT THERE!!” “OKAHAY OHOKAHAY PLEHEASE PLEHEASE PLEHEASEEEE!!” 

𖤓 If there are any tickle scenes in a book or series, Pony will be taking it home to re-read over and over again. This book series came out in the early 1990s but I can totally see Ponyboy being an avid Goosebumps reader because of the amount of tickle scenes it has in it. Like, it would get to a point where he wouldn’t even be reading for the horror aspect and just scope the scenery out for the tickle scenes. 

𖤓 Baby teases piss him all the way off (not really). He’s already the baby of the gang! He gets it!! No need to reiterate it when tickling him!!!

𖤓 Tickle games are the bane of this kid’s existence; he swears that anytime he gets tickled, there are new games the gang make up to torture him with. 

𖤓 Has a notebook full of tickle art of his favorite movie characters and also writes tickle fics from time to time. He is literally one of us. 

𖤓 Can only say “tickle” or “ticklish” when it’s not related to him specifically. He’ll just refer to it as “that word.” 

𖤓 Needs aftercare after tickles; it’s a genuine must. 

𖤓 As a little kid he religiously fell for the “Cut the Pickle” and “Round and Round Garden/Haystack” games. 

𖤓 Gets butterflies in his stomach and tingles on his sides when in a Lee mood. He’ll stay in his room and draw and write tickle related stuff and walk around the house with his arms crossed and his face slightly pink. 

𖤓 When he’s in a Lee mood though, he’ll go to Soda, Johnny or Darry; in that order. Trust when I say Pony doesn’t have to say anything for his family to know what he wants—he’s a pretty easy person to read. 

𖤓 Has been checked on multiple times because he genuinely screams bloody murder when he gets tickled 😅…

𖤓 Ponyboy is a VERY easy person to fluster, I fear. If someone says anything related to tickling in public Pony will be shushing them like a stuck up librarian. 

𖤓 He felt so excruciatingly numb after his parent’s death so there wasn’t any tickling in the Curtis household for a good five months (the Curtis parents were dead for about eight months before canon). Not that his older brothers had the energy to tickle fights and stuff but still. Ponyboy was just angry at everything and everyone for taking his parents away so he just felt the need to withdraw from everything. If his parents didn’t get to be happy on Earth anymore, why should he? 

𖤓 But on one really bad night, though, from a particularly bad nightmare, Pony genuinely couldn’t take it anymore and just was so borderline tired of feeling so sad and so angry. He just quietly went to Darry in the middle of the night and asked him for tickle kisses like their mom used to do and Darry of course did so without hesitation. 

𖤓 Was in SUCH a bad Lee mood during the five days he and Johnny were at the church. I mean, having a dream about your brothers tickling you? Really, bro 🫩🫩🫩❓❓❓

𖤓 SPEAKING OF WHICH!!! I adore how Darry and Soda call Ponyboy sweet childhood nicknames in private. When it’s just the three of them, I can imagine they sneak in “baby” or “Ponybaby” when tickling him and Ponyboy squeals and kicks his legs while squeaking “I’M NOHOHOT AHA squeak BAHABY!!!” before getting a raspberry blown to his neck as he nonsensically babbles and shrieks. He has a love-hate relationship with getting babied as you can tell. 

𖤓 Has accidentally kicked and punched every member of the gang in the gut because they squeezed the back of his neck in, like, a comforting way or a way to get his attention. 

𖤓 Misses screaming “I’hihi’m tehelling mohoooom/dahahaaad!!!” or simply just crying out for them when getting tickled by the gang.  

💛 I’ve worked on this post basically all summer so giving it lots of love via reblogs would motivate me to make a pt.2 regarding the other characters in The Outsiders! Thank you so much for reading all the way until the end!!! 💛

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